Urgent help needed with old Mac hard drive

[honestone]

As I mentioned previously, I have had drives enclosed in devices that needed "bus" power (ie, power from the Mac), both Hard Disk Drives (HDDs) and Solid State Drives (SSDs), and they function fine. In fact, I have two Samsung 512 gig SSDs enclosed on nice, slim Orico enclosures, and they get power from my Macs (and work fine). I also have a HST 2.5" HDD that came out of my late 2012 Mac Mini enclosed in another nice, slim Orico enclosure, with USB connectivity (and getting power from either of my Macs), and again, like the SSDs, works fine (I am actually trying to sell that drive). You can purchase enclosures that have a plug for getting power from an outlet.

Given that your drive is 2.5", you can actually purchase an Orico enclosure:

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod...VkONkCh1rnAg3EAQYASABEgJvP_D_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

It is a snap to insert the drive inside that enclosure.

 

[disfasia]

But this is the same type of enclosure I have. The problem is the USB drive. I can assure you that my HD was not visible through USB. I am quite certain the problem is the USB issue. Yes, the power comes from USB but this is not like any external drive which is formatted to be read as an external unit. It is literally my hard drive taken from my computer. It always had to be read through the cmd-T mode, I assume because of how it was formatted like other HD. I don't think you can just connect another Macbook to a MB and expect that it will be recognised by USB. Or will this USB 3 then do the trick with the other cable? Sorry, it is hard to tell from the photos.. Thanks.

 

[disfasia]

I also cannot find a cable that would go from this unit to a thunderbolt 2 port. Can you see any? I have just spent hours looking. Here is the Thunderbolt drive to avoid confusion. Thanks

 

[honestone]

First, the drive is not the USB "device". It is the enclosure that is the USB "piece", along with the USB port on your Mac.

Secondly, it would still be good to know the exact model of the (USB) enclosure.

Third, sorry to disagree with you once more, but as long as the drive is OK, as well as the external enclosure (and ports on both the enclosure and your Mac, and the USB cable). after you remove the drive from your Mac and place inside the external enclosure, it should still be able to be "seen" when it is attached to one of your Mac's ports. I do agree with you that with the drive still inside your Mac, the only way to "see" it on another Mac is through Target Disk Mode. But again, it can be placed/installed an external enclosure, and be visible on another Mac's desktop.

I have done this quite a few times, ie, removed the drive from inside one of my older Macs, and installed it inside an external enclosure, and after attaching it to my newer Mac, it was visible on the desktop. Also, as I have mentioned, two of the partitions on my external SSDs are bootable, ie, they contain SuperDuper! backups of each of my Macs. I am just about certain that if I removed the SSD from the Orico enclosure, and installed inside my Mac Min i, I would be able to boot up the Mac Mini.

Amazon has plenty of Thunderbolt-to-Thunderbolt cables:

https://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&k...targid=kwd-43761230844&ref=pd_sl_4zl03alc67_e

Other sites also:

https://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC...VB_5kCh3xbAAJEAAYAyAAEgLlL_D_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

 

[Lufbrarunner]

I am just about certain that if I removed the SSD from the Orico enclosure, and installed inside my Mac Min i, I would be able to boot up the Mac Mini.

This is true.
I have a clean install of High Sierra on and external drive, for emergencies, and I am able to boot both of my iMacs and my MacBookPro from this via USB.

I also have an install of Sierra on a 32gb SD card which also works on all my machines.

 

[disfasia]

I wrote that there is no brand on the casing.
Can you look at the casing you suggested to me? It is not thunderbolt . So a thunderbolt to thunderbolt cable would be useless. There are no cables that actually would connect the case you suggested to a thunderbolt port.

 

[disfasia]

Laufbrarunner, nobody has installed my old drive anywhere. It is an external drive. The Mac folks put it in a casing and told me I would have to boot from the firewire line. How do you boot from USB? I have never heard of this before.

Nothing is installed in my Mac. This is an old drive removed from my previous computer. The technicians were pretty clear that my drive would have to be read through firewire. Now my current computer has no firewire, only thunderbolt.

 

[honestone]

I wrote that there is no brand on the casing.
Can you look at the casing you suggested to me? It is not thunderbolt . So a thunderbolt to thunderbolt cable would be useless. There are no cables that actually would connect the case you suggested to a thunderbolt port.

That's true. But my suggestion was for a USB enclosure that works, as I have 3 of them. You should be able to find an external case with a Thunderbolt interface via a google search, but they will be expensive.

Yes, the case I suggested would not be able to connect to the Thunderbolt port. But it will connect to any of your USB ports.

Mine work flawlessly, and are definitely reliable,

 

[honestone]

Laufbrarunner, nobody has installed my old drive anywhere. It is an external drive. The Mac folks put it in a casing and told me I would have to boot from the firewire line. How do you boot from USB? I have never heard of this before.

Nothing is installed in my Mac. This is an old drive removed from my previous computer. The technicians were pretty clear that my drive would have to be read through firewire. Now my current computer has no firewire, only thunderbolt.

One can boot a Mac from a USB-connected drive if a backup that was made from one's Mac to that drive was made with either SuperDuper! or Carbon Copy Cloner. Either of those fine programs make a bootable backup/clone. That's right, I said bootable. Like Laufbrarunner, I do that at times with my SuperDuper! backups to my external (partitioned) SSDs, enclosed in the Orico enclosure I already pointed out to you. And it is via a USB connection.

It was my understanding that the hard drive you are having issues with used to be inside your old Mac, but it is now in an external case. Is that correct? Also, just to be clear, what kind of connectivity can you do with that external. case? Thunderbolt, USB, or Firewire?

In your case, we are not saying anything about booting from that external drive, even if it came out of your old Mac with the OS you were using on that time installed on it. I actually do not think that is possible anyway.

 

[disfasia]

Again, nothing was done to my old HD. It was not made with CC Cloner or not touched. It is just my HD taken from my broken computer casing. I am merely trying to access my old HD which has my book on it. It is NOT a bootable drive. The external case is USB but it does not show up with USB to USB to my computer. That is why I am looking for a cable that will be USB to thunderbolt2 or something like this. The external case I have is not the problem. The issue is USB to USB is not working. I cannot find another type of cable that will work USB thunderbolt 2.

 

[honestone]

OK, that is actually what I thought. And we understand the HD was not "touched", nor was it "made' with CCC.

Again, we need to know the exact model of your external case. There should be some information on and/or inside the case which says what company it is from, and the model number. I (and maybe others) still think it is an issue with the enclosure itself. And yes, we understand there is no such thing as USB-to-Thunderbolt cable.

If you are not willing to try another USB enclosure (like the one I posted about above, and that I know works), and if you are insistent on a Thunderbolt connection, then you'll need to find an enclosure that has either a Firewire 800 port, or a Thunderbolt port. Firewire 800-to-Thunderbolt cables exist (in fact, I used to use one, and I still have it).

 

[disfasia]

The external case is no-name/generic. That is why I can't say the name. there is none. I can upload a photo so you can see.

I am happy to buy a new enclosure. That was not my question. It was which cable to get? I literally can find none from that enclosure to a new one. I need a Thunderbolt 2 to Micro b USB cable. I would rather buy them both at the same time knowing that they both exist. The casing is not a problem but the cable is. See the image below for my casing. Thanks again!

 

[honestone]

First, for what seems like the 30th time, there is no such thing as a Thunderbolt 2 to Micro b USB cable.. They do not exists.

Secondly, the Orico enclosure I posted before (here it is again):

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01M08LCXW/ref=psdc_160354011_t1_B011I5ZTIS

includes a USB 3.0 cable.

And here is an external enclosure:

https://www.amazon.com/OWC-Mercury-Portable-USB3-0-Enclosure/dp/B00AR9ZYYQ/ref=sr_1_2?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1539675849&sr=1-2&refinements=p_n_feature_keywords_four_browse-bin:6022607011

with a Firewire 800 port, and it includes a Firewire 800 cable. But you would also need to purchase a Thunderbolt-to-Firewire 800 cable:

https://www.amazon.com/Apple-Thunde...4&sr=8-2&keywords=thunderbolt+to+firewire+800

So, as you can see, that Orico enclosure would be the least expensive way to go.

Do you have any other external devices that have a USB port, so that you can test the USB ports on your Mac, just to make sure?

 

[disfasia]

Yes, I have two Lacies which work fine and are readable from the USB ports. I think the reason my HD does not show up is that it was not formatted in the same way my LaCie drives were. So with the Orico, you are saying that I can connect it to my USB port and it will be readable? Why is it not readable from this enclosure? Is it the USB>USB and that this new connection would allow the drive to be powered? Thanks again!

 

[Lufbrarunner]

Do you know how the drive is formatted?
The USB port on your Mac will be able to power a 2.5 inch drive.

 

[disfasia]

It is literally the drive from my 2010 Macbook. It was removed, placed in the casing, nothing more. I don't remember how it was formatted since it was formatted for me in the Apple store (as part of the computer when I bought it).

 

[Cory Cooper]

Hello,

From the discussion and all of the information we have, the drive should be bootable. If it booted fine when it was in the MacBook, it will work the same in an external enclosure. If it mounted and was accessible when internal, then it will be in an enclosure There isn't a difference in the way drives work whether they are internal or in an external enclosure. The only difference between internal and external drives, is the actual interface hardware used to access the drive. That's why you can startup from an internal or external drive just the same, and why CCC/SuperDuper! clones work as advertised.

If I understand it correctly, the Apple Store only used Target Disk Mode via FireWire, because USB ins't supported. Also, they used TDM, because the screen was damaged and they wanted to access/save your data.

If the drive isn't mounting now, it has to be an issue with the drive itself or the enclosure, since your LaCie drives work on the same USB ports and with the same cables.

C

 

[disfasia]

Thanks Cory! I haven't touched this drive in four years but am quite certain that I never just plugged it in as they told me that it needed firewire to power it and read it. There was never a problem reading it from firewire as target disk mode. Is there a way I can test this? I just thought that the drive not being formatted after being removed from my computer was only readable as a TDM drive due to power accessing the drive.

here for example you see this reading comes with a power supply. Might that be for a reason?

https://www.amazon.com/Sabrent-External-Docking-Station-DS-UBLK/dp/B00IKAQ538/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&sr=1-1&s=electronics&keywords=sabrent+docking&tag=trust925-20&qid=1428940555

 

[Lufbrarunner]

I would agree with Cory, it sounds like a problem with the drive itself.

 

[honestone]

Yeah, I'm getting that sense more and more also. Not sure why there are issues with the drive itself. I guess you could try one more thing. Open up one of the Lacie cases, remove the drive mechanism that is inside, install the "questionable" drive, and then see if it is visible on your Mac's desktop.

What model Lacies do you have?